Category: Uncategorized

Posted on

100 Verses on Renunciation (Vairagya)

Here is Swami Vivekananda’s translation of Bhartrihari’s poem, Vairagya Shatakam, referred to in English as 100 Verses on Renunciation. I haven’t been able to find a complete version of his translation online, so this is only some of the verses and a bit out of order. It is still a fantastic and inspiring read!

Vairagya is a concept from yoga and other Indian schools of thought that means a type of dispassion for worldly concerns, name and fame, and sensory pleasures. In short, it is conscious and protracted renunciation, and the reason for cultivating it is simple – it’s hard to make progress on the spiritual path when you’re too preoccupied with chasing tail, gorging yourself on chicken vindaloo, imbibing wine and beer, and being too addicted to comfort and pleasure in general.

And to think, yogis of old thought ancient India had too many comfortable and pleasurable snares – what of us in the modern world??

Of course, not all of us are looking into the spiritual side of life, and that is all well and good, so let’s bring our focus back to semen retention. The concept of vairagya, of renunciation, still applies – in fact, renunciation is the name of the game, the whole kit and kaboodle! The whole essential point of semen retention is to renounce porn, masturbation, and orgasm. Many would say retention entails the renunciation of all forms of lust, even looking at that cute tart on Instagram or having lustful thoughts.

This is the true meaning of brahmacharya. Brahmacharya is typically translated as celibacy, but it goes beyond abstaining from mere sex and masturbation – it is the giving up of lusting after any and all objects or sources of pleasure. It is cultivating the conduct (charya) of God or the Higher Self (Brahman).

Don’t mistake what I’m saying here. It is perfectly fine to enjoy the good things that come to you in life! It is well and good to try to further yourself, to accomplish goals, and to live in basic, simple comfort. I’m not advocating constant penance and asceticism (though these are interesting avenues to explore), but simply learning to give up the lusting after things and experiences that you think will bring you ultimate happiness and contentment.

Brahmacharya means working to realize that everything you have to be happy and content for the rest of your life is already within you.

A Thought Experiment

Let me give you a little thought experiment to work with.

It can be said with much certainty that almost everyone that has ever lived has run from the painful and uncomfortable and chased after what was thought to be pleasurable and satisfying. All day, every day, we chase after what we think will bring us happiness and run from the uncomfortable, trying to stave off our subtle, or not so subtle, sense of incompleteness.

When do we ever “arrive” at our destination – lasting happiness and contentment? Why do so many celebrities commit suicide? Don’t they “have it all”? What Christmas present that we craved so badly ever brought us lasting happiness and contentment? When did we ever find a girlfriend or spouse who brought us nothing but joy and happiness without a fair amount of pain?

Here’s a good one – when did you ever masturbate and feel happy, proud and fulfilled?

Why do so many people “succeed” in life – getting the good job, the nice and attractive spouse, the nice car and house, and the 2.5 perfect children – only to have a midlife crisis? They did everything they were told would make them happy and content, and as it turns out… They still aren’t happy or satisfied!

And therein lies the crux of the matter – until you realize that a part of your mind is always craving more, you’ll never be truly happy and fulfilled. It’s time to stop looking solely for external sources of happiness, and time to cultivate inner happiness and contentment.

Going back to vairagya and renunciation – if you’re practicing semen retention, you’ve already begun to practice renunciation, at least from porn and masturbation. Try kicking it up a notch and renouncing a bit more – do you really need to be scrolling Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, etc constantly? Do you really need to be constantly distracting yourself with Netflix, video games, and Discord? How happy can you be living simply?

Ponder how those “uncivilized” tribes of people could manage to have any modicum of happiness without any of our “modern luxuries”. In fact, many people are starting to believe they are likely happier in many ways.

Ponder how we live in a capitalist society that pushes you to buy more, do more, be more – party more, fuck more, make more money, buy more things, masturbate more to porn and OnlyFans, post more on social media to show just how much “more” and “better” you’re living as compared to your peers… Ponder how the message is “more consumption will make you happier”, because that’s how a capitalist society runs!

Fuck off, consumerism.

Ask yourself – are you wisely and consciously using the things in your environment, or do they have you hooked, are they using you? Do you seek all of your happiness and pleasure from external quick fixes, or do you have some practices that help you to cultivate inner joy, happiness, contentment?

“So throw away your baggage and go forward. There are quicksands all about you, sucking at your feet, trying to suck you down into fear and self-pity and despair. That’s why you must walk so lightly. Lightly my darling, on tiptoes and no luggage, not even a sponge bag, completely unencumbered.” – From the book Island, by Aldous Huxley

On to the Poem

You can find copies of his poem in book format, although I haven’t found one that is this translation.

BHARTRIHARI’S VERSES ON RENUNCIATION

I have travelled in many countries, hard to travel in,
And got no result;
Giving up pride of birth and position,
I have served all.
Like a crow stealing into a kitchen,
With fear I have eaten the bread of others in their homes,
Yet thou, Desire, who leadest to evil deeds,
Leavest me not!

(Verse 2)

I have crossed oceans to find wealth.
I have blasted mountains to get jewels.
I have spent whole nights in graveyards
repeating Mantras
And have obtained — not the broken cowrie
of blessedness
Ah, Desire, give me up now.

(Verse 3)

I have borne the wicked words of the wicked;
To please fools, when my heart is weeping,
my lips ever laughed.
Stopping my judgment, I have with folded hands
Stood before unworthy persons.
Even now, my Desire, why do you make me dance 
like a fool?

(Verse 4)

For this life, which is like a drop of water 
on a lotus leaf,
We have not enjoyed, but enjoyments have enjoyed us.
We did not penance, but penances burnt us up.
Time did not fly, yet we are gone.
We become decrepit with age, but not so Desire.
Infirmity assails us, the skin wrinkles,
The hair whitens, the body becomes crooked,
Old age comes on.
Desire alone grows younger every day.

(Verses 5-8)

Hope is the name of this river, whose water is Desire,
And Thirst the waves thereof.
Passion is the crocodile living in that water,
Vain resolves are the birds that reside
In the tree of virtue on the shores and kill it.
But there are the whirlpools of Delusion
And Despondence, the high banks.
The great Yogis are blissful because they,
With their pure minds, never crossed this river.

(Verse 10)

Blessed are they that, living even in the
caves of mountains,
Meditate on the supreme Light.
Even the birds will fearlessly drink of the
tears of pleasure
That flow from their eyes.
Alas, our minds grow familiar, even in imagination,
With palaces and pleasure — gardens,
And thus our lives fleet by.

(Verse 14)

Even when the only food is gained by begging,
and that is tasteless;
One’s bed, the dry earth;
One’s whole family, his own body;
His only clothing, a ragged bit of cloth —
Alas, alas, the desire for enjoyment does not leave a man.

(Verse 15)

Not knowing the power of flame, the insect falls into it.
The fish swallows the bait, not knowing the hook inside.
That, well aware of the vanity and dangers of the world,
We cannot give it up —
Such is the power of Delusion.

(Verse 18)

Have such places in the Himalayas become extinct
That a man should go begging at others’ doors?
Have the roots in the mountain forests all disappeared?
Are the springs all dry?
Are the trees all withered that bear sweet fruits 
And bark for garments
That a man should look with fear on the face of a fool,
Whose head is turned by a little wealth?
(Lit., “Whose eyebrows are dancing with the wind of the
pride of a little wealth”.)

Verses 24-25)

Arise! Let us go into the forest
Where pure roots and fruits will be our food,
Pure water our only drink,
Pure leaves our bed,
And where the little-minded, the thoughtless,
And those whose hearts are cramped with wealth
Do not exist.

(Verse 26)

In enjoyment is the fear of disease;
In high birth, the fear of losing caste;
In wealth, the fear of tyrants;
In honour, the fear of losing her;
In strength, the fear of enemies;
In beauty, the fear of the other sex;
In knowledge, the fear of defeat;
In virtue, the fear of scandal;
In the body, the fear of death.

In this life, all is fraught with fear.
Renunciation alone is fearless.

(Verse 31)

The root of health has always round about it
A thousand worms in the form of dangers and disease.
Where fortune falls, open a hundred gates of danger.
Whosoever is born, him death will surely swallow.
Say, where is that Providence who ever created 
Anything that died not?

(Verse 33)

Life is like a wave upon the waters,
Youth only remains a few days.
Wealth is like a fancy of the mind,
It immediately vanishes.
Enjoyment is like a flash of lightning
amongst dark clouds.
Our most beloved one is only for a moment.
Knowing this, O man, give your heart unto Brahman
To cross this ocean of life.

(Verse 36)

. . . Living in whom gods like Indra, Brahmâ 
      and others appear like a blade of grass,
Whose anger can destroy the worlds in a moment.
O sage, know Him, that One Supreme
Who dies not,
And give not your mind to false enjoyment.

(Verse 40)

Ah, where is happiness in this life?

(At best it lasts but a hundred years, of which half is spent in sleep; of the other half, half in decrepitude; of what remains — one half goes in childhood and, of the rest, still half in serving others!)

O man, in this futile, wave-like life
Where is happiness?

(Verse 49)

Now you appear as child
And now as a youth, whose whole occupation is love.
This moment poor, another wealthy,
Now a babe, and again a decrepit old man.
O actor man, at last you vanish from the stage
When death beckons you behind the scenes!

(Verse 50)

You are a king, but we have served Gurus,
Who are great in knowledge.
You are known by your wealth as a king,
We for our knowledge.
There is infinite difference between us and you,
Therefore we are not the persons to wait upon you,
O Kings!

(Verse 51)

Oh, when will that day come,
When in a forest, saying “Shiva”, “Shiva”,
My days shall pass?
A serpent and a garland the same,
The strong foe and the friend the same,
The flower-bed and the stone-bed the same,
A beautiful woman and a blade of grass the same!

(Verses 85, 90)

O Shiva, when shall I be able to cut
To the very roots of my Karma,
By becoming solitary, desireless, quiet —
My hands my only plate, and the cardinal points 
my clothing?

(Verse 99)

The fruits are sufficient food,
The waters of the mountain sufficient dinner,
The earth a sufficient bed,
And bark a sufficient garment —
These are all welcome.
Only I cannot bear the proud words of fools,
Whose organs are all disordered by the drink
Of the wine of new wealth!

(Verse 54)

What if you have got the wealth that fulfils every desire?
If your foot is on the heads of your foes,
What of that?
If you have made all your love wealthy,
If your body remains a Kalpa (A periodic cycle of creation and dissolution.) — what of that?
The only thing to be desired is Renunciation
Which gives all love to Shiva.

(Verse 67)

Fear only life, that brings Birth and Death,
Have no love of friends, no lust, no attachment.
Alone, living alone in a forest,
What is more to be longed for than this Renunciation.

(Verse 68)

Going searching in the lower regions,
Going into the skies,
Travelling through all the worlds,
This is but the fickleness of the mind.
Ah, friend, you never remember the Lord
Who resides within you!
How can you get happiness?

(Verse 70)

What is there in the reading of Vedas,
The Shrutis, the Purânas and doing sacrifices?
Freedom alone takes off the weight
of this dreadful world,
And manifests Self-blessedness.
Here is the truth: the rest is all shop-keeping.

(Verse 71)

When the body is still healthy and diseaseless,
When old age has not yet attacked it,
When the organs have not yet lost their power,
And life is still full and undiminished,
Now, now, struggle on, rendering great help to yourself!
My friend, it is useless to try to dig a well
In a house that is already on fire!

(Verse 75)

In Shiva, who is the Lord of this Universe,
Or Vishnu, its soul, I see no difference,
But still, my love is for Him
Who has the young moon on His forehead.

(Verse 84)

Oh when will that time come,
When in a beautiful full-moon night,
Sitting on the banks of some river,
And in a calm, yet high notes repeating
“Shiva! Shiva! Shiva!”
All my feelings will come out through the eyes
In the form of tears?

(Verse 85)

When, wearing only the Kaupina, (Loincloth.)
Lying on the sands of the holy Ganges in Benares,
When shall I weep aloud, “O Lord of ghouls”,
Saying this, and whole days shall pass like moments?

(Verse 87)

When, bathing in the pure Ganges water,
Worshipping Thee, Omnipresent, with holy fruits
and flowers,
Stretching myself on stones in a stony cave,
My whole soul shall go into meditation,
And according to the voice of my Guru,
I shall avoid all misery, and purify
The mind defiled with serving the rich.

(Verse 88)

This whole wide earth my bed,
My beautiful pillows my own two arms,
My wonderful canopy the blue sky,
And the cool evening air to fan me,
The moon and the stars my lamps,
And my beautiful wife, Renunciation, by my side,
What king is there who can sleep like me in pleasure?

(Verse 94)

This Universe is only a little circle.
What is there to desire in it?
Will the ocean go into waves
By the jumping of a little [fish?]?

(Verse 92)

There was a time when I could see nothing but Women
in this world:
And now that my eyes are opened,
I can see nothing but Brahman.

Beautiful are the rays of the moon,
Beautiful are the lawns in the forest,
Beautiful is the meeting of the good,
Beautiful is poetry, and
Beautiful is the face of the beloved.
But to me none of these are beautiful,
Knowing that they are evanescent.

(Verse 79)

Oh mother earth, father wind,
Friend light, sweetheart water,
Brother sky,
Here take my last salutation
With folded hands!
For today I am melting away into Brahman,
Because my heart became pure,
And all delusion vanished
Thro’ the power of your good company.

(Verse 100)

Old age watches us, roaring like a tigress.
Disease, like enemies, is striking us often.
Life is flowing out like water from a broken jar.
Curious still how men do evil deeds in this world!

(Verse 38)

Those beautiful cities.
Those mighty monarchs.
Those powerful nobles.
Those learned assemblies.
Those moon-faced women.
Those proud princes.
And those that sang their praises —
They have all been swept away from the memory
of man.
My salutation, therefore, is to Time who works
all these!

(Verse 41)

The sun by his coming and going every hour
is lessening the life of man.
Time flies without our knowledge,
Crushed as we are by the load of many works.
Seeing the evils of Birth, Old Age, Danger, and Death
We are not afraid.
Ah me, drinking the wine of delusion,
The world has become mad.

(Verse 43)

I have not learnt that knowledge which defeats all
opponents!
Nor have been able, at the point of the sword,
Which can cut thro’ an elephant’s back,
To send our glory even unto the skies;
Nor, under the light of the full moon,
Drunk the nectar of the budding lips of the Beloved.
My youth is gone fruitless
Like a lamp in an empty house.

(Verse 46)

Posted on

Raw-Dogging Reality – Recovering Your Dopamine, Pt. 1

One of the biggest benefits we get from semen retention is the huge increase in dopamine that occurs when we refrain from orgasm. Dopamine is the molecule that not only gives us the energy, confidence and motivation to get things done, but it’s also the molecule of reward, making us feel good when we accomplish our tasks and goals. 

Of course, it’s also responsible for the good feelings we get from food, drugs, sex, gaming, social media – pretty much anything pleasurable.

Unfortunately, the modern world is filled to the brim with cheap thrills, quick fixes and shiny distractions that constantly drain us of our motivation/reward molecule, and I don’t mean just porn – social media, gaming, binge watching Netflix, even text and email alerts all take us out of the present moment, sapping attention and depleting dopamine.

This leaves us crippled, crabby, maybe even downright useless without our normal crutches. 

In other words – we have become so hooked on chemical highs and technological distractions that bare reality has become unbearable. If we take a month or two to get rid of these chemicals and technological distractions (or at least greatly reduce them), then we will, with no further effort, become happier and more interested in the world around us.

Perhaps more importantly, we will find ourselves with both the energy and the motivation to go out there and chase after the things we really want – our dreams, our goals, our mission.

This post is about combating the modern world and all its cheap pitfalls in order to further enhance the benefits we get from abstaining from PMO, first by cutting out those addictive dopamine depletors; by learning to leverage “the suck” to further enhance the dopaminergic pathways and reward centers in the brain; and using targeted supplements to improve the functioning of dopamine within the brain. It’s similar to a “dopamine detox”, but geared towards retainers with some specific exercises and additional goodies.

Further, unlike most of my posts, there’s very little to do with transmuting sexual energy, yoga, and the esoteric. Just plain, hard science on enhancing dopamine – although this concept is essentially the same as tapas, or spiritual austerity.

This article is written with New Year in mind, and framed within a one month context. Try out what is suggested for the month of January, or any month for that matter, but realize that these are practices you should learn to adopt in your daily life, not just one month out of the year.

And let me be very transparent – I am writing this and engaging in this experiment as a kick in my own pants. I’ve gotten a little soft around the edges the last couple of months in some ways – time to get back to the grindstone.

“Resistance is the grindstone of our soul.” – Aubrey Marcus

“Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken.” – Warren Buffett

Article at a glance :

  1. Dopamine is the neurochemical currency of drive, motivation and reward. One of the biggest benefits of semen retention is how it quickly and robustly increases dopamine levels – this article is all about further optimizing our lifestyle to maximize dopaminergic function. 
  2. We are addicted to chasing empty stimulation (porn, junk food, social media, gaming, binge watching shows, texts/emails, drugs), and this addiction to distraction and empty stimulation prevents us from doing and enjoying those things we know we need to be doing.
  3. If we give up these meaningless distractions, we allow our brains, specifically our dopamine receptors, time to recuperate and resensitize, making our normal, daily life more enjoyable. We will also reclaim the motivation to accomplish all of our goals, big and small, that we have allowed these devilish distractions to take from us.
  4. Taking this one step further, if we actively “embrace the suck”, we can speed up this process of healing and boost levels of feel good neurotransmitters (Part 1 ends here)
  5. Meditation is the polar opposite of constant stimulation seeking – engaging in focused meditation practice retrains the mind to focus attention and calm down, instead of scattering attention in an agitated manner.
  6. We can use targeted supplementation to increase dopamine levels, protect dopamine neurons, and even to regain neuronal sensitivity to dopamine.
  7. We can assess our progress not only by seeing how much more enjoyment we get out of the real world, but by practicing “just being”.

Dopamine Zombies

The way we achieve things in this life is largely due to dopamine, a neurotransmitter involved in both motivation (the pursuit of our goals and interests), and the feelings of reward after we get or accomplish what we were after. One of the reasons semen retention is so powerful is because of how it’s able to increase dopamine levels so robustly – recall that orgasm leads to a rise in prolactin, which subsequently plummets dopamine levels for up to two weeks afterwards. No orgasm means little prolactin, which means more dopamine, leading to you having the energy, drive and confidence to chase after your goals and accomplish them.

The problem with today’s world is that everything, not just porn, has been designed to hijack the reward pathways in our brains – from food, to video games, to social media, to tv and movies, even to our phones, and nevermind drugs themselves.

Think back to when we were a tribal species. We evolved to get rewarded by “dopamine hits” from finding food, hunting prey, sleeping with actual mates, socializing with real friends and family in person, hearing stories and myths told by elders of the tribe (or by telling them), building and maintaining a living space, dancing and communing around the fire… In other words, we had to work for these rewards, and these rewards were useful and beneficial, ensuring we would do the things we needed to survive and form social bonds. And when we were hunter gatherers, there were essentially zero drugs.

Nowadays? We flip open our phone and have instant access to porn, distracting games, and endless scrolling on social media – which is designed to be addictive. Even texting “creates a dopamine loop” in the brain. We have access to drugs and booze that cause an immediate release of pleasure far beyond anything else in the natural world. We eat food and drink beverages that companies have spent millions of dollars designing to be as rewarding and addicting as possible. 

Just take a look at this chart which shows the massive release of dopamine from some drugs – 

“In today’s dopamine-rich ecosystem, we’ve all become primed for immediate gratification. We want to buy something, and the next day it shows up on our doorstep. We want to know something, and the next second the answer appears on our screen. Are we losing the knack of puzzling things out, or being frustrated while we search for the answer, or having to wait for the things we want? The neuroscientist Samuel McClure and his colleagues examined what parts of the brain are involved in choosing immediate versus delayed rewards. They found that when participants chose immediate rewards, emotion- and reward-processing parts of the brain lit up. When participants delayed their reward, the prefrontal cortex—the part of the brain involved in planning and abstract thinking—became active.

The implication here is that we are all now vulnerable to prefrontal cortical atrophy as our reward pathway has become the dominant driver of our lives.”  Dr. Anna Lembke, Dopamine Nation

And that’s real bad news, because it means we are no longer in control of our behavior. We’re no longer using our prefrontal cortex, that part of the brain so highly developed in humans that allows us to think and plan, but are slaves to our hijacked reward pathways, switching from one source of empty stimulation to the next, not getting anything worthwhile done, not chasing after our dreams or accomplishing our goals.

We’ve become dopamine zombies, slaves to our technology and chemical crutches.

How do we overcome this issue? By getting rid of our addictive substances and timewasters, and actively engaging in the beneficial but less stimulating things we know we should be doing.

“Remember and remind yourself of a phrase favored by Epictetus: ‘persist and resist.’ Persist in your efforts. Resist giving in to distraction, discouragement, or disorder.” – Ryan Holiday

Get rid of Distraction, Lean into Discomfort and Do the Hard Thing (Weaning and Leaning)

The way we get from lazy and comfortable to action-oriented and badass? We need to wean ourselves off of our comfortable, dopaminergic distractions, and lean into those things that are tough that we know we need to be doing. It’s a simple concept, but it can be difficult to really put into place effectively.

I don’t need to tell you what your time wasters are, I’m sure you know them well. Time to start weaning yourself off of them. The most effective method is to just cut them out entirely – no scrolling on any social media apps, no Youtube, no Netflix or gaming. No distracting yourself at all – I want you to be raw-dogging reality. It’s a shock to the system, but it’s effective and there’s no wiggle room to cheat.

If you can’t imagine giving everything up, at least cut out the biggest ones, and save the smaller ones for an hour in the evening the first week, 45 minutes the second week, 30 minutes the 3rd week, cut out completely the last week.

As for drugs? Many in this community don’t use any at all, including caffeine. For those that do, try to cut them out entirely for this month – no booze, no nicotine, no adderall, no pills, no kratom, none of that. I’ll make an exception for caffeine as it’s pretty mild and actually helps to increase dopamine receptor expression, but don’t be pounding energy drinks every two hours.

If your only chemical vice is a bit of coffee each day, cut back on the amount the first couple weeks and then abstain completely the second half of the month, or the last week.

If this is too painful for you, well… Toughen the hell up, buttercup. You want to become a semen retention badass but can’t wait till the evening to engage in your time wasters? Dig deep, get in touch with your manly side, and make it happen!

After you’ve cut your dopamine depletors out or reduced them and moved them to the evening, you’ll have some free time on your hands. Now comes the leaning into part of the practice. What is it you know you should be doing, but that brings up some internal resistance to doing it? Whatever that is, do that thing right now! 

That feeling of resistance should be your cue that whatever is causing said feeling is your new mission. “The Obstacle is the Way”, as Ryan Holiday titled his book on stoicism. That feeling of resistance is your call to arms, the rallying cry to go make things happen. Anyone who does cold showers knows this feeling well. Anyone who has tried to talk to that cute gal over there knows this feeling well. Shit, anyone who has tried to clean their room is familiar with this feeling.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it? The second you feel that feeling, go do that thing without even thinking about it. You don’t have your time wasters to distract you, so what else is there to do?

Just take a second and imagine how different your life would be if, starting today, you didn’t shirk from the essential-but-uncomfortable, but instead attacked head on. Think of how much you could get done today… Think about how much you could get done in a month… Now, imagine if you have been doing things this way for years! 

Yeah, it’s safe to say your life would be very different and undoubtedly much better. You’d scoff at the notion of constantly suckling on the teet of whatever your vices currently are.

Make a list each night before bed of the top 3-5 things you need to get done the next day. Don’t wait until the morning to make the list, have that bad boy ready to go. Then, each time you accomplish a task, cross it off the list. Making the physical list and crossing it off is key to this process. Each time you complete a goal and cross it off the list, guess what? Instant dopamine release – you feel a sense of accomplishment at completing the task (plus some relief thrown in for good measure), and that dopamine release gives you energy and motivation to accomplish the next task. 

It’s a vicious cycle of productive badassery.

Now, you can approach your productive mornings in two different ways. One way is “worst first” – you start your day doing the thing that is gonna be the biggest pain in your ass. With that out of the way, the rest of your manly duties seem much easier. If you’re one of those “fire in the belly” guys, this method may be for you.

I am many things, but a hard-charging, Type A personality I am not. I prefer to start with the smaller things and move up the ladder. The disadvantage here is things become progressively more difficult as I cross off my to-dos, but the upside is I get some small, easy wins which help me build momentum to tackle The Big Baddies. However, both energy and will-power are finite resources, so you have to be strategic about this method. Don’t drain yourself accomplishing 6 smaller tasks and then have no energy to do that 1 big thing you really needed to get done that day – I’ve done that more than I care to admit.

No matter which method you choose, and neither is better than the other, you are now setting yourself up for success in life by training your brain to get dopamine from accomplishing goals, instead of from mindless time wasters or using substances.

Now, it must be noted that in the beginning, the dopamine released from accomplishing small tasks or goals won’t be nearly as big as that released from things like gaming, social media, nicotine, booze, marijuana, etc, etc. If it were, pretty much everyone would easily accomplish their goals off the bat. Hang in there, it will get better.

And it should be noted that the more you allow yourself to spend time on these other highly addictive time wasters, well… The less enjoyment you’ll get out of doing the things you know you need to be doing.

At the risk of repeating myself too often, moving your time wasters to the end of the day and limiting the amount spent on them is a great beginning strategy, but if you really want to get the most out of this month, you should cut them out completely. If you don’t think you can give them up completely from the get-go, start by saving the time wasters for an hour in the evening the first week, a half hour in the second, and then give them up entirely the last two weeks.

This will give your brain time to literally rewire itself – in the wake of blasting your dopamine receptors 24/7 from highly stimulating bullshit, they will re-sensitize enough so that you actually come to enjoy not just adulting, but all the other badass stuff you really want and need to be doing.

And once you reach that point, this won’t be a struggle, it’ll be your new way of life.

“Every conquering temptation represents a new fund of moral energy. Every trial endured and weathered in the right spirit makes a soul nobler and stronger than it was before.” WB Yeats

Pressing on the Pain Side

What if I told you I regularly engaged in a grueling practice that was difficult, increased bodily inflammation, caused oxidative stress, left me sore for days, increased blood pressure and heart rate during the activity, increased metabolic waste products, was toxic to muscle cells and even caused tears in my muscles themselves? 

Other times I deprive my body of nutrients and fuel for extended periods. Sometimes I force myself to endure bouts of extreme heat, while other times I suffer through periods of immersing myself in intensely cold water.

What if I told you that all of the above practices, while harmful in the short term, actually not only improve my health over time, but also raise my hedonic set point, meaning I’m happier at baseline?

As I’m sure you’ve figured out, I was talking about exercise, fasting, deliberate hyperthermia and cold exposure. These are practices that cause acute stress that leads to an increase in overall robustness, which is great for physical health. Something that is often overlooked is that these things are also powerful means to improve your mood, motivation, and energy levels. 

Your hedonic setpoint is essentially your base level of happiness. Some people just seem to be constantly happy, and the rest of us can’t stand those people. Other people are perpetual curmudgeons, the pessimistic Scrooges of the world. The happier you are, the higher your hedonic setpoint, meaning you walk around feeling pretty good the majority of the time. The grumpier you are, the lower your setpoint – you gotta get lots of things going right for you to start feeling good about your life.

Your hedonic setpoint is somewhat malleable – take addiction for example. You take your Average Joe with a normal life who derives pleasure from a multitude of different things – socializing, his dog, his hobbies, and if he’s lucky, maybe even his job. Then you get him hooked on drugs, let’s say cocaine. Cocaine releases so much dopamine that Average Joe gets high as a kite, and so he buys more the next weekend, and more the next weekend.

From The Oatmeal

After a while the only thing bringing him any pleasure is cocaine, and a bit further down the road, even cocaine won’t bring Average Joe any pleasure but will only delay the withdrawals. Compared to the massive surge of dopamine released from cocaine, everything else seems boring in comparison.

Ol Joey has succeeded in making his hedonic setpoint so very low that it doesn’t matter what he does – he can’t experience pleasure. The good news is that after enough sobriety, he can raise his setpoint back up to something close to what it was before his addiction.

We may not be cocaine addicts, but we are addicted to all these other little dopamine wasters – social media, gaming, binging on Netflix, eating takeout chinese food, etc. And the cumulative effect of all these smaller things is very similar to if we’d become addicted to a drug – we become less happy at baseline and are constantly bouncing from one source of empty stimulation to the next, never feeling happy on our own, never satisfied, and rarely doing anything worthwhile.

Now, and this is key, the reverse of this is also true. Put yourself through deliberate exposure to discomfort, and you’ll begin to raise your hedonic setpoint, meaning you get more and more pleasure out of your day to day life.

Imagine you found yourself bedridden in a hospital for a month, and for the sake of argument, let’s just pretend the food was bland and you had no access to friends, family, phones, tvs, games, even books. Just you, your mind, those fluorescent lights and that eggshell-white wall over there. 

Sounds awful, right? 

Now imagine how great it would be once you made it out of that hospital, back into your normal life. The same old food you used to eat would taste amazing, you’d be stoked to interact with your friends again, and of course, it’d be great getting back to your hobbies and toys.

The good news is that we don’t have to be bedridden in a dystopian hospital in order to make our normal life more enjoyable – we just have to cut out the sources of empty stimulation and, simultaneously, actively and systematically embrace what is uncomfortable.

In other words, we have to embrace the suck.

I know, I just told you to give up on your comforting-but-draining timewasters, and now I’m telling you to make things worse by actively seeking out the uncomfortable… But just stick with me here.

Exercise increases all of our feel-good neurotransmitters, including dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin, as well as endocannabinoids and endorphins; cold immersion causes a huge and long-lasting rise in dopamine and norepinephrine, giving us energy and motivation; sauna use releases dynorphin, a chemical that makes us feel acute discomfort but actually resensitizes the brain to its own endorphins; and fasting increases dopamine, as well as serotonin and norepinephrine.

By pressing hard on the side of pain and discomfort, we are rewarded with an immediate rebound of pleasure. When we give up our addictions and plow headfirst into accomplishing our everyday tasks, we don’t get quite the same immediate reward, but the two combined over time allows us to raise our hedonic setpoint. 

That means you will be happier each and every day, whether things are going your way or not.

So if you give up your junk timewasters, it might hurt today. It might be boring tomorrow. It may feel like a sludge through the doldrums for the next week or two. But by golly, stick with it, because in 2 weeks, you’ll start enjoying the little things in life again, and in 4-8 weeks, you’ll find yourself feeling happy for no damn reason most days. And this process will be sped up if you’re able to actively push on the pain side with these more concentrated practices, specifically exercise, fasting, and cold/heat exposure.

Giving up on our cheap, empty addictions is the road to recovery; actively embracing the uncomfortable makes that road a whole lot easier and shorter.

Check out Part 2 here

Posted on

Yoga Nidra – Self-Hypnosis to Overcome Issues w/ Semen Retention

Lately I’ve been diving deep into my yoga nidra practice and it is paying dividends, in semen retention and beyond. Thought I’d share my thoughts on this practice.

Yoga nidra means “yogic sleep”, and it’s based off of an ancient tantric technique known as nyasa. Nidra is a powerful method of deep relaxation combined with a type of hypnotic auto-suggestion. You listen to any one of a number of pre-recorded scripts that allow you to drop down into, and stay in, the hypnagogic state – that state in between the waking state and sleep. You may be familiar with this state – as you’re drifting off to sleep at night, sometimes you’re in this odd place where half of your mind is already dreaming about making some pancakes while unicycling, with the other half of your mind still awake and thinking, Huh, weird… It’s the twilight zone of the mind.

One of the features that distinguishes yoga nidra from other non-sleep deep rest (NSDR) techniques like hypnosis is the inclusion of something called a sankalpa, or resolve. You use this resolve to affect a big, major change in your life. Generally you want to think big here – even changes such as “I want to lose weight” or “I want to quit smoking” are usually too small. However, for those of us constantly struggling to stop masturbating to porn, or those of us struggling with wet dreams, we can permit a smaller, more targeted sankalpa for now.

What I’m proposing here is the use of yoga nidra and its sankalpa or resolve to help us start changing the mind and personality on a subconscious level. It’s generally well known that it’s difficult to change the mind with the mind – that’s why in yoga, we don’t start with intense meditation, we start with the body through yoga postures and the breath through breathing practices. The postures and breathing practices not only induce a state of calm alertness through which meditation becomes much easier, but changes the whole body/mind complex over time as well, gradually leading to a deeper understanding of ourselves and life in general.

The best part? There’s practically zero work involved, beyond lying down and listening to a short 10-20 minute script.

For your sankalpa, you can do smaller, more targeted resolutions if you’re really struggling with specific things. State them as if you already have fixed the problem, for example, “I am free from wet dreams” or “I no longer experience wet dreams”, or “I am free from porn and masturbation” or “I no longer indulge in porn and masturbation”. However, it’d be better to say something along the lines of, “I am a master of Brahmacharya/celibacy” or “I am in complete control of my sexual energy”.

These “big picture” resolves will not only fix the smaller issue you’re targeting, such as overcoming wet dreams, but will also help realign your whole mind, attitude and outlook to help fix other problems as well.

It’s important that your resolve be repeated with deep feelings of will, faith and conviction. Don’t just meekly repeat these resolves – feel the truth of them deep within your being. Make sure to not switch up your resolve, either – think about it ahead of time, pick one resolve that you really need to make, and then stick with that resolve until you see the positive changes in your life and the bad habit is eradicated.

In order to get the full benefits, you need to do this practice regularly. I tend to do mine in the afternoon around 2 or 3, when there’s a natural lull in energy and I’m feeling like I need either a nap or an espresso, or before bed. Every day would be best, but shoot for at least 4-5 times a week. Feel free to do it twice a day as well – at 10-20 minutes a session, it won’t take up much time. Try not to be too full after a big meal, and also be sure that you aren’t all jacked up on caffeine or other substances – you need to be able to dip down into a deep parasympathetic state.

In short, treat it like you would any other meditation practice.

I’ve been doing this practice regularly for about two months now, and the benefits have been tremendous. I get amazing sleep pretty much every night, I feel well-rested and relaxed throughout the day, it has sped up learning and recovery from the gym, and it’s greatly improved my meditation practice. My resolve isn’t retention related, but I can already see the change that it is bringing to my life in relation to my sankalpa.

I also experienced my first out-of-body experience because of it, but it happened only once and very much by chance, so I can give you no promises there.

Back in Part 3 – Strengthening Your Aura and Personal Magnetism, I spoke about how increased heart-rate variability, or HRV, does wonders to improve the coherence/feel/flavor of your aura, based off of some very interesting research from The HeartMath Institute. I used my Aura ring to measure my HRV during two different sessions of yoga nidra, and the results were pretty impressive.

In the first session my HRV increased by a modest 10 or so points, but in the second image, which was from yesterday, it quadrupled! Granted my beginning HRV was pretty low – I had to get up two hours earlier than usual and it was leg day at the gym, so I was feeling pretty beat. But regardless, the increase in HRV and the ramifications it has for one’s aura – and overall wellbeing – should be reason enough to begin incorporating this into your semen retention practice.

Check out the free app Insight Timer for hundreds of yoga nidra scripts, or just look on youtube. I generally stick to ones that are 15-30 minutes in length, although they range from 10 minutes to an hour or more. I haven’t explored many on youtube so I can’t vouch for any of them, but feel free to check them out for yourself.

These NSDR protocols have a lot of science behind them and have many benefits beyond just relaxation. You can use them after an intense study session to help encode the information you were going over, to help encode specific movement patterns (think learning a new lift at the gym, some new grappling technique in jiu jitsu, a new skateboarding/snowboarding trick, some sick dance moves, etc), to recover faster from workouts or to catch up on lost sleep. Check out Dr. Andrew Huberman’s second podcast episode to learn more.

Find one or two that you really like and stick with them, as your body and mind will grow accustomed to the person’s voice, the specific routine used and the flow of the practice. Here are the three I use most often –

https://insig.ht/gnz9TC0nYjb – 16 minute

https://insig.ht/9XXHkvWnYjb – 19 minute

https://insig.ht/Td67Wm3nYjb – 20 minute

Those interested can check out the book Yoga Nidra by Swami Satyananda Saraswati. Further information on nidra can be found on the website for the same company that publishes the book, yogamag.net.

“Sankalpa is a Sanskrit word which can be translated as resolve or resolution. It is an important stage of yoga nidra and a powerful method of reshaping your personality and direction in life along positive lines. If you know what you wish to achieve in life, sankalpa can be the creator of your destiny.

“The sankalpa takes the form of a short mental statement which is impressed on the subconscious mind when it is receptive and sensitive to autosuggestion during yoga nidra… The resolve you make at the beginning of the practice is like sowing a seed, and the resolve at the end is like irrigating it.

“When the mind is clear, the sankalpa grows very well. If you first prepare the bed with fertilizer and manure, remove the weeds and grass, and then sow the seed, the plant will grow better… If you prepare the mind and sow the seed properly, then it will grow in your life and become a powerful directive.

“For success, the sankalpa needs to be planted with strong willpower and feeling. It should be planted when the mind is relaxed and ready to accept and absorb it. Such a state occurs during yoga nidra.

“Once the seed of sankalpa is planted deep in the subconscious, it gathers the vast forces of the mind in order to bring about its fruition. This deep and powerful seed will eventually manifest itself again and again at a conscious level and bring about changes in your personality and your life… This resolution must be backed by deeply ingrained willpower in order to be carried through… If you want to transform your life pattern, that can be done by the power of the sankalpa made during yoga nidra. If there is a negative tendency or habit in your life and you want to correct it, that can also be done through a positive sankalpa.” – Yoga Nidra, by Swami Satyananda Saraswati

Posted on

Why You Continue to Fail, Pt. 2

See Part 1 here.

Poor Tracking and Management

The famous management specialist (apparently such things exist) Peter Drucker said, “What doesn’t get measured, doesn’t get managed.” 

If you aren’t journaling every day and tracking your daily habits, emotions, activities, practices or sexual energy-boosting herb intake, and then one day you relapse, how are you going to know what caused it? 

Don’t chalk it up to just weakness – it could have been one of many variables that caused your relapse. For one person, they’re feeling shitty about something that happened earlier in the week. For another, it was their second week taking too powerful of a sexual energy-boosting compound and they couldn’t handle the energy they’d built up. For yet another, they had caffeine that day when they usually don’t.

If you’re struggling with relapses, start tracking what’s going on in your life. It doesn’t have to take much – just a brief synopsis at the end of each day describing what you did, where your mood and energy was at, if anything really good or bad happened, if you were tempted and what you did about it, and if any new practice or substance was added to your protocol. Just list it out in bullet points. At the end of the week, do a quick review and sum things up for how the week went.

It’s simple but pays dividends.

Things Going Too Well

For a lot of addicts, when the going gets tough, the tough get, well… To relapsing. What many folks don’t realize is that almost as often, an addict can also get into trouble when everything is going right.

Many people look at addicts and they say, “Oh, of course he relapsed. He just lost his job and his wife left him.” That makes sense to us. What doesn’t make sense is when everything is going right, and that guy just got a new promotion, and then he relapses. “He had it all going for him, how could he mess up now??”

Most people don’t realize that relapses can occur not just when things go bad, but also when things are going great. Why? Because these people are on a dopamine high that makes them feel invincible, and it makes them want more of that high. So they add a little more fuel to their fire with drinking, with their drug of choice, or gambling, or relapsing with a sex addiction.

Or in our case, with porn and masturbation. Gentlemen, let’s face it, except for the few people who are using semen retention as a powerful life hack, most of us are terribly addicted to porn and masturbation. 

Beware of the high highs. Celebrate your wins, but when they start stacking up, which they inevitably will… Keep your guard. For those interested in more info, check out Professor Andrew Huberman’s podcast with Dr. Anna Lembke on defeating addiction. It’s a banger, as are all of his podcasts.

Not Embracing the Feminine

This point might ruffle your feathers – if it does, you’re exactly who needs to hear it.

Why are men attracted to women, and vice versa? Largely because we are two halves of the same whole, and being around the other half, and especially having mind-blowing sex with them, makes us feel complete. The problem is, when we’re not around them or bumpin’ uglies, we’re left feeling incomplete, and before long, that urge to seek feminine energy drives us back out there in pursuit of it. Or, more likely, just another visit to pornhub and another crusty sock. Back to day 1.

Call it testosterone seeking estrogen, call it yang seeking yin, call it the call of the wild for all I care. If you’re a male heterosexual with a heartbeat, you naturally crave the feminine – period.

Here’s what most men don’t realize – you can find that same feminine energy elsewhere, and, dare I say, even cultivate it within. No, it won’t make you girly – what it will make you is so cool, calm and collected around women, and so not needy, that they will be quite curious as to what you have going on. And since you’ve been cultivating all this sexual energy, you may just find they are also quite attracted to you, because you already have ample supplies of that yang good good.

The eminent psychologist Carl Jung came up with the concepts of anima and animus as they relate to the subconscious. The anima is the hidden feminine side of the ego in men, while the animus is the hidden male aspect within women. 

The anima goes through 4 stages of development within a man – Eve, Helen, Mary and Sophia. Eve is the first stage of development, or underdevelopment as it should be thought of, with Sophia being the final, highest development. As a man grows, he is supposed to develop and fully integrate his anima, going from looking at women strictly as objects of desire and providers of nourishment, security and love (Eve), then to women as capable of intelligence and worldly success even though they may not be virtuous (Helen), to women being able to achieve success and possess virtue, even if all of them don’t (Mary), and finally to women as being fully developed and complete beings in themselves, capable of success and being both virtuous and flawed, just as we men are – as women as our complementary opposites. 

It’s sad that many guys can’t seem to get past looking at women as purely objects of desire, as mere things they can use to get off with, as conquests, or even as a substitute for “mother”, seeking that comfort and nourishment they used to get as children from their moms. Every girl or woman you meet is a complete individual, with their own amazing qualities, their own flaws they’re likely working on, their own hopes and dreams and fears, just like every one of us guys. Developing your anima to the level of Sophia takes spending a lot of time around women, as friends, family and lovers, and trying to see and understand this for yourself.

It’s important to seek out the feminine in life, not just in the company of women, but in other ways as well. Go out in nature more, go hiking, camping, backpacking, mountain biking, trail running, swimming in lakes, rivers and oceans. It’s called Mother Nature for a reason – because she provides all that we need to get by in life. Sure, drop any one of us off in the woods and we probably wouldn’t survive more than a week or two, but this is how we got by for millennia and in fact continue to get by, even if we aren’t in the thick of nature in daily life. We’re still dependent on the animals and plants She provides for us, the very oxygen we breathe comes from forests all around the world.

Two more things I’d like to add, most important of which is to take your yin-boosting herbs! This is the easiest way to get that feminine yin energy, from herbs like goji berries, rehmannia, dong quai or he shou wu. Jing Herbs makes a nice product called Restore the Yin that would be well suited to this. As you know, these herbs aren’t estrogenic or feminizing in any way, they just help to build sexual energy while also cooling off some of that yang heat.

The other is to practice things like generosity, patience, compassion and loving kindness. These are traditionally thought of as more “womanly” virtues. Just think of a mother and her newborn – you can bet your ass she’s experiencing these feelings in abundance, every single day of her child’s life.

Practice giving with others, and I don’t mean just donating to charity. Lend a hand to someone who needs it, be there to listen to friends who are struggling, help your girlfriend out with some chores or yard work or whatever. Take her up to your room, go down on her and get her off, and then don’t have sex with her or ask for head in return. 

Be patient with others – we’re all flawed. Have compassion for those flaws. When you see someone misbehaving or acting a fool, instead of getting upset with them, have compassion that their minds are so disturbed and they are so overwhelmed by their emotions. And just be kind to others, it costs you nothing and if anything just boosts your good karma.

Again, if you’re triggered from hearing that you should get in touch with your feminine side, you’re probably the person who needs to hear it most. Nothing is less manly than being afraid of the feminine.

Nothing to Fill the Hole Left by PMO

If you take away all the time and energy you put into porn and masturbation, or into chasing women, and you don’t have something left to fill that gap, well… You’re almost guaranteed to relapse.

You guys should already know what healthy habits to replace PMO with. Lift weights, go for runs or hikes, start working on that project you’ve been thinking of, nerd out on something, journal, pick up a new hobby, or learn an instrument. I’ve never met a person, female or otherwise, that doesn’t give props to a person who can play or is learning to play an instrument.

Find your passions! It’s not always the easiest, but it can and should be done. In Steven Kotler’s latest book The Art of Impossible, he outlines his “Passion Recipe”. It’s four simple steps to take in order to find what you may be passionate about. In the name of brevity, those interested can check out the formula here.

Putting Sex and Attention From Women on a Pedestal 

This one’s a classic – putting the pussy on a pedestal. If all you care about is the female form, whether that means jacking off to it multiple times a day or spending every weekend chasing it down at the bars, how the hell are you ever gonna break this habit?

Sex can be one of the finest pleasures in life. Women are wonderful and really can enrich your life. And women’s bodies can be sexy as hell. But guess what champ? There is so much more to life than chasing tail. 

We live in a pretty fucked up world, let’s face it. The cards are stacked against us retainers. Sex is crammed down our throats in movies, tv, video games, books, billboards, even the real world. There are plenty of attractive women out there wearing skimpy clothes every day, and don’t get me started on girls in yoga pants. 

And porn? It used to be you’d at least have to go to the corner store to buy a porno mag or steal your dads – now it’s at the touch of a button.

But just like women are programmed almost from birth (looking at you Disney) to be obsessed with finding the perfect man to fall in love with and to have that fairytale wedding, we’re programmed from birth to chase after sex. It’s a natural urge of course, but we’re taught a real man is a player, one who gets all the ladies. And we’re constantly having hyper-sexualized images of women shoved in our faces.

What’s a guy to do?

Realize the world we live in is a trap. Realize there is so much more out there for you than just getting laid. Realize masturbating alone in your room to whatever weird porn you’re into is pretty damn pathetic, if it’s a constant, unbreakable habit.

Once you’ve had a fair amount of sex, you realize that it’s just that – sex. It’s just another one of those fine pleasures out there. It’s satisfying, at times amazingly so, but.. So is a nice steak dinner. So is a backpacking trip with your closest friends. Accomplishing big goals is very satisfying. Transforming your body through proper diet and exercise is very rewarding.

And porn? It’s really not that great, is it? A frenzy of friction and staring at women on a screen you’ll never meet, only to be left feeling empty and shameful.

Sex and women? They can be great, they can be amazing, but they are nothing to obsess over. And let’s face it, sometimes women and even sex can be a drag. “Can’t live with em, can’t live without em”.

It goes back to your passions – what else interests you out there? Figure that out and start pursuing those things. Look for your dopamine highs in healthier ways.

Just a Rat in a Cage

You guys know that song by The Smashing Pumpkins, Bullet With Butterfly Wings? It has pretty spot on lyrics for us guys practicing semen retention.

The world is a vampire, sent to drain

Secret destroyers, hold you up to the flames

And what do I get for my pain?

Betrayed desires, and a piece of the game

(chorus)

Even though I know – I suppose I’ll show

All my cool and cold – like old Job

Despite all my rage I’m still just a rat in a cage (2x)

Then someone will say what is lost can never be saved

Despite all my rage I’m still just a rat in a cage

The world sure can be a vampire sent to drain, and the porn and sex industry absolutely is vampiric. Maybe I’m showing my age here with this song.. But the point is that you need to consider whether you have “rat in a cage” syndrome.

In a classic study on addiction, they set up two cages for rats to live in. Both cages had an option for rats to self-administer a cocaine solution. How the rats were able to self-administer cocaine, alas, I do not know, but I’m picturing a rat version of Tony Montana right now.

Cage number one was a “non-enriched environment”, meaning there were no other rats, no toys, nothing but a food bowl, water bowl, and the method of self-administering cocaine. The other cage was an “enriched environment” – it had other rats to play with, a bunch of rat toys, as well as plants to simulate nature, as well as the same water bowl, food bowl and cocaine. 

The results? Rats in the non-enriched cages administered waaaaay more cocaine than those in the enriched environment. The rats in the enriched environment would still occasionally partake, but only one rat in the enriched cage was found to be a “high drug-taker” – I guess he was the partier of the bunch.

The implications for those of us practicing semen retention should be obvious – if you have nothing else exciting going on in your life, what’s to keep you from “self-administering” all that porn and masturbation you’re trying to eliminate? After all, cocaine and PMO affect the same neurotransmitters and reward circuits in the brain.

So what are you going to do to enrich your cage, brothers? Don’t be just another rat in a cage.

Where Does Your Self-Worth Come From?

This is also about finding your self worth. That’s something only you can do, but for starters, realize it ain’t “out there”. No “thing” you get, no goal you accomplish, no amount of fame you acquire will make you truly happy. That’s why middle-aged men who acquire all they ever wanted have their mid-life crisis. That’s why so many celebrities are at best attention-seeking partiers and at worst, wind up addicted to drugs and committing suicide. All that fame and all they accomplished didn’t make them happy. 

Newsflash – happiness ain’t out there! It’s to be cultivated within. It starts by loving yourself. How do you love yourself? Again, I can’t answer that completely for you, but you could start by being the guy that you’d look up to. Who you would look up to, not who society says you should look up to. A guy who likes what he likes and fuck what other people say. A guy who sticks to his principles – speaking of which, what are your principles? A guy who doesn’t need others’ approval because he already knows he’s the shit. He knows what he wants and likes and he goes after it, no excuses.

That’s usually not something you can flip on like a switch, so spend time developing these qualities and outlooks.

I’m in my early thirties preaching to a bunch of dudes on the internet about yoga, tantra, herbs and self-help. Yoga is not manly here in the west, but do I care? Nope. I don’t care about preaching about the virtues of Taoist and Ayurvedic herbalism either. 

Why not? For one, this stuff works. It works incredibly well and has been honed by gurus, masters, ascetics and adepts for millenia. If you put time into the practices and apply these principles, it will transform every aspect of your life.

The other reason I don’t mind touting the benefits of yoga, herbs and tantric sex is because I don’t place my self-worth in what other people think. I like and love myself*,* and it’s not based off of what a single other person thinks of me, especially people on the internet. It’s not me being cocky, I’m as flawed as anyone, but I’ve done enough digging to know myself, to have my principles, to know what I like and to pursue that, to hell with what anyone else thinks.

I already dig myself, and no one can take that away from me. It also means I don’t go around seeking other people’s approval. You don’t like me? Makes no difference to me, that cup is already full, my friend.

As the ancient Greeks were found of saying, temet nosce – Know thyself.

I try to do good deeds, I make sure to be nice to others, especially those who have less than me, I spend time doing the things that I want to do, and I give value, respect and encouragement to others. 

I have a “buddy” who is constantly knocking others down to make himself feel better. He’s not a complete prick, but he is quick to make fun of people, whether he knows them or not, to make himself look and feel better. It’s sad, because everyone sees right through it. They see how insecure he is about himself and it does not win him any points, with guys or girls. I don’t remember the last time he had a girlfriend that lasted more than a couple months, and these were few and far between.

I have another friend, a real, actual friend, who is always building people up. He doesn’t kiss ass and he’ll tease you if it’s something harmless, but he’s quick to give value. He’ll help you out if you need help. He’s there for you if you need to talk. He’s a genuinely honest and giving guy, with a wide open heart. He’s quick to give genuine compliments. He knows that there’s no shortage of value to give, and while he doesn’t do it for these reasons, all that value giving just makes him even cooler, even more likeable, even more of a man. Not some weak, insecure man-child who has to make others look bad in order to make himself feel a bit better.

Interestingly, he’s into semen retention, jing-boosting herbs and all sorts of other self-improvement activities too. Quite popular with the ladies too, I might add.

Be that second guy. Give value to others. Be a nice, helpful dude. Find out what you’re into and pursue it, and fuck what anyone else says. Knowing yourself, pursuing your interests and being a good person, boring as it may sound, is what is genuinely attractive to others. It’s also the absolute key to confidence. You’ll have way more friends and trust me, the ladies will notice too. 

Posted on

The Paradox of the Libido

What is our biggest obstacle to progress on the path of semen retention? Our unchecked libido. Our overwhelming need for release is what causes us to spill our seed, every time. It’s what drives us to spend so much time seeking sexual pleasure, sometimes through the pursuit of women, but oftentimes it comes in the form of mindless porn-scrolling and masturbation. 

If the libido is our biggest enemy, what is our biggest ally towards progress on the path of retention? Paradoxically enough, it’s also our libido! 

“How can this be?” I hear you say. As writer on all things stoicism Ryan Holiday puts it, the obstacle is the way. In fact, the libido is the source of all our fuel for self-evolution, and make no mistake, the only goal of true retention is conscious, directed self-evolution.

Libido – friend or foe?

It’s often better to simplify, simplify, simplify, but in this case, let’s take the concept of libido and expand upon it a bit. To most of us, the libido simply means our sexual desire. Possibly the most well known of all psychologists, Sigmund Freud, coined the term libido. He defined it as, “the energy, regarded as a quantitative magnitude… of those instincts which have to do with all that may be comprised under the word ‘love’.” According to wikipedia, he “also explained that it is analogous to hunger, the will to power, and so on insisting that it is a fundamental instinct that is innate in all humans.”

Freud’s disciple and world renowned psychologist Carl Jung goes one step further, identifying it as the totality of psychic energy, not limiting it to just sexual desire. “It is the energy that manifests itself in the life process and is perceived subjectively as striving and desire.” In this sense, it can be thought of as the psychic desire to achieve, the psychic desire for better and more. For most of us, this desire for achievement rarely goes beyond sexual desire or the desire for status, power and wealth.

This “totality of psychic energy, striving for and desiring better and more”, is very analogous to the concept of kundalini within Indian yogic schools of thought. This kundalini energy lies dormant at the base of the spine, and no matter what style of yoga you practice, and whether you know it or not, the goal is the same – to rouse and awaken this sleeping energy and move it up the spine, through all the chakras until it connects with and comes to reside in the 7th, highest chakra. This is the end goal of all spiritual pursuits. Your goal may not be spiritual enlightenment but trust me when I say that no matter your goal, you want this psycho-sexual-spiritual energy working for you, not against you.

Alchemical painting of a tamed, libidinal serpent

Most of us are essentially walking around like spiritual zombies. Our kundalini lies dormant and our chakras remain in a sad state, operating at a bare minimum. Look around here in the west – we’re all fat, cranky, stressed, tired, lazy and grumpy, never mind all the needless masturbation. If we can’t keep up our physical bodies, which we all can see and agree exist, how do you think our energetic/spiritual bodies look? Most of us don’t even believe in such things. 

And as a quick aside, I’ve said before that if the concepts of chakras and kundalini turn you off, just use them as metaphors. Whether they exist or not is irrelevant, all we care about is learning to tame, control, harness and build up our sexual energy, right? Just do the practices and the results will follow.

Harnessing the Libido

So this libido, this kundalini, this psychic energy that desires “better and more experiences” lies dormant. It actually isn’t completely dormant, it’s just barely operating.. After all, we all do have a libido. That energy, for most of us, never makes it past the second or third chakra. Most of us are stuck operating somewhere in the limbo of the first three chakras. The first chakra is concerned with survival; the second with sense of self/ego and the desire for sex; and the third is concerned with personal power, status, and your place in the world. You can look at the chakras as stages of life or levels of maturity – most of us never make it past wanting more sex, status and power for ourselves.

Makes sense, doesn’t it? Our first concerns are simply to survive. After we’re comfortable on that front, we generally want to go out and make it in the world, and hopefully find a nice lady or two or ten to pair up with. Some of us never want to settle down and just want more and more women. We are obsessed with sex, status, wealth and power – that’s not hard to see is it?

Imagine the central channel and the chakras as a hose with a very powerful stream of water flowing through it. This hose has 7 junctions where water can flow out, and our goal is to get it to flow fully out of all 7 junctions. Unfortunately, most of us never make it past the 2nd, maybe the 3rd junction, and the water isn’t flowing, it’s a mere trickle. See, that channel where the energy is supposed to flow through has blockages. Those junctions are shut, hardly open at all. What energy does flow through this channel is a far cry from the amount that should, and it rarely makes it past the first three chakras because we rarely act from a place of higher consciousness.

Most of us are never concerned with anything other than “me, mine, and those people I can fuck or use to further myself.” Sad but true. Chakras or no chakras, this is what the majority of people obsess over.

This is why the libido isn’t actually the enemy. It’s the most powerful tool we all have for self-evolution and for achieving all of our desires. The problem is for most of us, our libidinal energy is stuck. Our libido never makes it past our cock and balls. Our libido is stuck here, and that’s why most of us are obsessed with sex, finding more women to conquer and with hoarding more wealth, status or whatever.

Further, that energy that is flowing is a mere trickle of what it should be. Whereas if the channels were cleared, and the junctions opened, and the energy increased.. Oh boy, it’s a whole different ball game.

Your libido is NOT the reason you can’t stop jacking off – it’s because you haven’t learned to increase and circulate this energy!

While a bad idea in the beginning, as you progress on the path of retention, you actually want to increase your libido, because once you’re able to move it past these lower centers that are only concerned with sex and egoic needs, you’re able to truly make some very satisfying and rewarding progress in life. At the very least, you don’t want to be squandering your sexual energy on porn and frivolous masturbation.

And guess what? If you’re still wanting to make it in the world, gain some status, lose your virginity or find a partner, you still need to harness this libidinal energy! There’s nothing wrong at all with these things in and of themselves, it’s just when people get STUCK there and they never progress past it that it turns into an issue.

Keep that in mind as you practice semen retention – these practices, even ones that seemingly would have no effect on raising this sexual energy up to higher levels, are all intended to awaken your chakras and raise the libidinal kundalini energy up as high as it can go. All the practices are designed for conscious self-evolution, not just to become an enlightened being, but also to be used for you to achieve all your dreams and passions in life.

It’s the greatest asset we all have, so stop draining it into your crusty sock on Pornhub in your dark bedroom.

Posted on

Part 2 – Cultivation and Sublimation Basics

This was my second post on the Reddit sub for Semen Retention.

Part 1 here..

To recap, that charge of confidence, that sexual energy that just makes the whole world juicy when you practice Semen Retention.. The Taoist Qi Gong practitioners call that energy Jing. Yogis know it as Ojas.It’s that energy that makes you feel alive and confident, that lets you burn the candle at both ends as a teenager, letting you masturbate and have sex to your little hearts content, party hard all night and then get up and do it again in the morning.

It’s that good good.

Let’s learn how to cultivate even more of it and transmute it, turning us ordinary Joes into the Ubermensch..

Remember that the following terms are interchangeable and I will be bouncing back and forth between them – Jing/Ojas, Qi/Prana, and Shen/Tejas.Some conceptual frameworks to work with

The leaky cup

The first framework we went over in Post 1, that of a cup with holes or leaks in it. We are that cup, and our goal is to fill it up with that sweet, sweet Jing nectar. The way we go about doing this is by avoiding things that create leaks while at the same time*, doing things to further increase Jing/Ojas.*

The biggest leak in our cup comes from squandering our seed – this must be retained and then sublimated. There are many other lesser ways we dissipate our Jing, but these smaller acts do add up, so we should be mindful.

At the same time we go about plugging up these leaks, we do things to actively increase our Jing as well. The big hitters in this field include using the techniques handed down within Taoist Qi Gong and Tantric Yoga – breathing exercises, visualizations, bodily postures, movements and gestures, as well as herbal therapies and sexual practices. These all radically increase our Jing and enhance our Semen Retention practice. This stuff is like adding jet fuel to your Semen Retention fire. The practices ahead amplify that drive, confidence, brain power and magnetism many, many times over.

The mind/body as energetic system

I’m sure most of you are familiar the image below, that of chakras and nadis, the vortices and channels through which Prana/Qi flow. The map below is the one most commonly used within Hatha and Tantra yoga, and the Taoists have a similar map.

The names, functions and significance of the chakras and nadis are not important at this stage. In fact, whether you believe in them at all isn’t important either.

What’s important for us right now is to start thinking of the body as a kind of battery, an energetic system. What we’re going to be doing as we cultivate Jing is to increase the energy within this system. As Jing increases, Qi/Prana does as well. This is why you suddenly have so much energy and drive to get things done after retaining for awhile! This energy can be further sublimated into Shen/Tejas, that cognitive/spiritual power and radiance some people seem to exude. Anyone who has experienced that charismatic magnetism knows just what I’m talking about.

A very important point I forgot to mention in the previous post is that while building Jing increases Qi, which then increases Shen, we can also work from top down and in any order we want. Conserving Shen can increase Qi and Jing, and increasing Qi can be sublimated either into Shen or condensed back down into Jing. Qi/Prana is the easiest to work with, so this energy system is key. This is one of the key things I haven’t really seen mentioned on this sub much.

Viewing the body as energetic system is HUGELY important for three reasons – one, we will be using visualization practices for sublimation based off of these energetic maps.

Two, think of a wire that conducts electricity. If it isn’t clean, if it’s rusted, if it’s covered in gunk and grime, will it be able to conduct electricity? Poorly, if at all. In fact just back in May I had to clean off the terminals of my car battery because they were corroded and my car kept dying. Impurities impede conductivity.

Finally, and most importantly, we have to be careful so as to not blow a fuse in the circuit. Imagine what happens when water starts flowing through a hose, but halfway through the water hits a kink. All that pressure builds and builds, at best preventing the flow of water, at worst causing an explosion somewhere along the line.

Whether you believe in chakras or not, you’re surely aware that you have a nervous system, and that this system is very sensitive. Electromagnetic energy (Prana/Qi) travels along this highway of nerves. You also have an endocrine system, which produces all of the hormones (Jing) in your body. The fact that EMF can disrupt the pineal gland’s production of melatonin should tell you just how sensitive this system is.

Yoga and Qi Gong, amongst other things, strengthen and balance the nervous and endocrine systems.Those systems all happen to line up almost perfectly with the chakras and nadis show above.

“If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration.” – Nikola Tesla

“My brain is only a receiver, in the Universe there is a core from which we obtain knowledge, strength and inspiration. I have not penetrated into the secrets of this core, but I know that it exists.” – Nikola Tesla

Basics of Jing Cultivation

Alright guys, I’ve already written quite a bit, so let’s jump to some practical advice. Nothing in this next section is going to be mind blowing, but it’s essential you start chipping away at this stuff now. Remember, you’ve already plugged the biggest leak, and keeping that leak plugged is huge! Later on we’ll discuss learning to orgasm without ejaculation and how you can begin to permit occasional ejaculation, if you so desire.

How Jing is Commonly Wasted

  • Poor Diet
  • Lack of sleep/Poor quality sleep
  • Abuse of drugs, particularly stimulants (including ADHD meds), opiates, binge drinking and smoking cigarettes, etc – These all cause your body to release and burn through hormones and neurotransmitters (Jing), and affect the nervous system (Qi). Even coffee and caffeine cause your body to burn through dopamine, norepinephrine, cortisol and more. The key here is to just not abuse any of these things! Moderation, my friends, and if you are prescribed medications, be smart and don’t just stop taking them!
  • Excessive ruminating, anxiety, depression… in a word, poor mental hygiene
  • Excessive exertion – Running multiple marathons a year, working out hard every single day, “burning the candle at both ends”, too much cerebral work and not enough “embodied” work (or the reverse)
  • Excessive fasting
  • Erratic mood swings/intense emotions – just have balanced emotions. Think of every embarrassment, failure, and setback you’ve ever faced. Guess what? You’re absolutely fine right now, in this moment. It’s not worth the excessive worry, embarrassment and anger you felt. Think of every toy you ever obsessed over and begged for for Christmas. When you got it, you were elated! And now, you’ve likely thrown it out or it’s collecting dust.
  • Hedonism – This is gonna be a biggie for us in this age, and this is a constant battle. Hedonism refers to the fact that we live in a MASSIVELY overstimulating world and it’s waaay too easy to overindulge. Our food is literally engineered to be addictively tasty while having almost no nutrition. Everywhere we look there is another screen with flashing lights and pretty colors vying for attention, and apps based off of intermittent reinforcement that suck us back in. We are the mouse in the cage constantly pressing the lever, desperately hoping for that next “hit”. Read, reread and read again u/freeanonsoul‘s post The Spirit of Seeing. This is where NoFap stems from, this is where “dopamine fasting” stems from. This is the true meaning of Brahmacharya, it is not just celibacy but control of the mind and senses!! More on this later.

“A true saying it is, Desire hath no rest, is infinite in itself, endless, and as one calls it, a perpetual rack, or horse-mill.” – Robert Burton

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” – Henry David Thoreau

“A really efficient totalitarian state would be one in which the all-powerful executive of political bosses and their army of managers control a population of slaves who do not have to be coerced, because they love their servitude.” – Aldous Huxley

How Jing can be Easily Cultivated

  • Proper rest – Practice good sleep hygiene! If there are any podcast junkies out there, check out Matthew Walker on JRE. This is THE biggest way to maintain Jing outside of SR.
  • Proper nutrition ~ Nutrient density – It’s pretty simple guys – Jing is the strength and integrity of allllll our hormones, neurotransmitters, immune system, cellular structure, and even DNA. All of this is built out of nutrients we get from our diet! The topic of nutrition alone would take many posts for us, so for now, try to make sure your diet is based off of whole foods, get adequate protein, healthy fat sources (get Omega 3’s, avoid fried foods, vegetable and seed oils), eat plenty of green veggies and berries (or use green powders to start), organic is preferable but not necessary, and use a quality multivitamin and quality fish oil.
  • Proper nutrition ~ Detoxification – Before you lump me in with all the MLM people you see on your facebook pedaling detox products, understand what I mean. “Detoxing” is a fad, a gimmick, and a way to make money off of gullible people who expect quick fixes without putting in the work. That ain’t us. However, the body absolutely and 100% actively detoxifies itself all day, every day. We need to make sure we are helping it to do so, firstly because it is a huuuge drain on energy levels to be constantly detoxifying surplus chemicals (especially the xenoestrogens that are dragging out testosterone levels down), waste products and end products of basic metabolism. Detoxification also helps us become more sensitive to Prana/Qi, which is absolutely going to come in handy when we start doing Pranayama and visualizations. Finally, and this is a biggie, when it comes to one of the most powerful ways to build the Three Treasures, through herbs, you’ll get very little to no effect from them if your body isn’t able to properly utilize and assimilate them. It’s also extremely easy to do – eat a lot more greens, practice intermittent fasting (I personally do at least 8:16 most days), and make sure you’re eating mostly fresh whole foods and not packaged junk. Daniel Reid talks a lot about this in his book, and within Hatha Yoga they begin with the Shatkarmas, or Six Actions, to hasten the cleansing process.
  • Proper exercise – nothing new here. Lifting weights help optimize male hormone levels andhelps us in the beginning to manage some of that excess energy/horniness/positive aggressiveness. Cardio helps us build up a sweat and eliminate toxins both through sweating and breathing – yes, toxins are eliminated through the lungs, that’s how breathalyzers work. Exercising 3-5 times a week is a great goal.
  • Positive Mental Attitude/Compassion/Generosity – Real men, and people coming from places of real power, are almost always givers. They come from a place of surplus, and they want to share that with those around them. There’s a reason the first two of the the 8 limbs of Raja Yoga are based on ethics, why Jesus preached to love thy neighbor, and why the Buddhists are so focused on generosity, compassion, right speech and right living. Generosity, compassion and love are a never-ending source of energy and strength. What you give, you receive back ten-fold, and I feel like most of us on this sub know this. Bunch of helpful and positive fuckers.

Practice Stage 1 – Asana and Pranayama

On to the good stuff! This post is just going to cover some basics, but remember, this is the foundation upon which your castle is built! The goal is to build a strong and supple nervous system that is able to handle higher and higher amounts of Pranic energy.

It is better to practice a small amount every day than it is to do longer sessions every once in a while! Pay attention to how you feel before and after the practice, and to how you feel in your everyday life as time goes on.

Asana

The word asana just means posture. These different postures serve three immediate functions for us – they strengthen and purify the nerves/nadis for higher Pranic loads, they prepare us to sit comfortably when we do Pranayama/meditation, AND they enhance Jing.

Jing is largely about our hormones, remember? Hormones are produced by endocrine glands, and asanas squeeze, massage and tone these glands, enhancing blood-flow to them and their secretion of precious Jing hormones. Chakras line up almost perfectly with all your major endocrine glands.. Hmm..

I’m going to give the most basic set of asanas. This is the backbone I personally use, and if I’m tight on time, this is it verbatim. I’m not trying to sneakily convert a bunch of dudes on Reddit into becoming soccer moms, so we’re going to keep things batshit simple. It includes a dynamic sequence, a forward bend, some back bends, a spinal twist and an inverted posture – other than the fact it’s missing shavasana, that’s a complete asana practice!

Asanas feel pretty damn good and are a transformative practice. Remember, asanas improve endocrine function and therefor directly increase Jing! Feel free to learn more than what I teach here. Hell, take that Big Dick energy to the local yoga club and meet yourself some honey bunnies.

Practice –

  • 2 full rounds of surya namaskara – sun salutations. Note that 1 full round is really two half-rounds – the first half you take your right foot back first, the second half you take your left foot back, and that completes one round
  • 1-2 minutes half-paschimottanasana – this is literally the one-legged sit-and-reach we did in gym class growing up. 30-60 seconds to the right side first, then with the left leg
  • 30 seconds dhanurasana – bow pose
  • 30 seconds bhujangasana – cobra pose. I like to look over my right shoulder, hold for a few seconds, go down to starting position, then arch the back up again and look over the left shoulder for a few seconds. This gives an enhanced massage to the kidneys and adrenals, which as you’ll learn later, are the “seat of Jing”.
  • 60 seconds ardha matsyendrasana – 30 seconds to the right, 30 to the left
  • 15-30 seconds salamba sarvangasana – shoulder stand. This practice will be crucial for more advanced sublimation!

Time ~ 10-12 minutes

Notes ~ Practice on an empty stomach. Two hours after a meal or half hour prior to a meal. First thing in the morning is great, although you will be noticeably stiffer than if you practiced later in the day, and I don’t meant morning wood. Go straight from asanas into pranayama.

Pranayama

This is the active cultivation and manipulation of Prana, or Qi. In Qi Gong, Yi (the mind), directs Qi. Qi directs Jing. Therefor, by combining the mind (awareness) with the breath, we are able to sublimate our Jing.

The benefits are tremendous, but for us right now, it includes not just increasing our Prana at any given moment, and thus energy, but also sublimating Jing into Qi into Shen. When we increase our Prana during practice it can then be used to enhance meditation (Qi->Shen), or can then be “stored” as Jing.

Each time you sit to do pranayama, you are actively sublimating your Jing!

We can also use pranayama for daily life. Need to boost your energy before you lift a heavy weight? There are multiple pranayamas for that. Need to calm down before a job interview? Got you covered. Need help sleeping? Easy peasy. Need to boost your immune system and warm the body in preparation for an ice plunge? Check out ya boy Wim Hof.

Do one of the following for 5-10 minutes after asanas, preferably alternating which practice you do each session –

  • Nadi Shodhana – This is alternating the breath through the left and right nostrils. Shodhanameans to purify, so this practice is all about purifying your nadis, the channels through which Prana flows. In Taoism, these are called meridians. If you could only do one pranayama for the rest of your life, this would be the one, and while it seems simple, it has IMMENSE benefits
  1. Sit in lotus, half-lotus, cross-legged, whatever is comfortable and keeps your spine straight.
  2. Curl you pointer and middle finger into the palm of your right hand, so that only your thumb, ring and pinky fingers are still extended
  3. Exhale
  4. Close the right nostril with the thumb, and inhale a full but gentle breath through the left nostril
  5. Close the left nostril and exhale through the right
  6. Keeping left nostril closed, inhale again through the right
  7. Close the right nostril, and exhale through the left
  8. If you’d like to add a visual component, imagine inhaling white light through the left nostril down the left side of the spine to the base, and then exhaling it back up the right side of the spine and out through the right nostril. Reverse the visualization for the next breath
  • Spinal Breathing – this is a concept used in Taoism, Tantra and Yoga. This is a powerful practice for cultivating the Three Treasures, so get real familiar with it.
  1. Sit in lotus, half-lotus, cross-legged, whatever is comfortable and keeps your spine straight
  2. Close your eyes and exhale
  3. Inhale slowly and evenly, filling your lower belly first, then mid abdomen, and finally the lungs around your clavicle
  4. Exhale slowly and evenly, reversing the order
  5. Inhale again, except this time move your awareness up a very thin channel or thread that starts at the perineum, moves up the center of the spinal cord, up through the brainstem and into the exact center of the head
  6. Repeat the process but in reverse, drawing the the awareness from the center of the brain (Ajna chakra) back down through the center of the spinal cord, and to the perineum at the base of the spine (Mooladhara chakra). Repeat this visualization with each inhale and exhale

For right now, your breathing practice will also be your meditation practice, as it requires a calm, concentrated mind to do the visualizations.

Notes ~ Again, empty stomach is preferred. You may feel tingling or other pleasurable sensations, these are a sign of progress and will only greatly increase with practice.

If you have really congested airways, look into neti pots or a vapor inhaler.

Key Takeaways

  • Start thinking of yourself as a leaky cup and as an energetic being
  • Get good sleep, eat well and cleanly, reduce stress, start cutting back on partying, don’t do anything to excess
  • Start exercising if you haven’t already, and try to do more good in the world
  • Asanas enhance Jing and allow for easy sublimation
  • Pranayama is a simple but powerful practice, and the quickest and most powerful way to sublimate Jing

Recommended reading ~ Practice

The Tao of Health, Sex and Longevity

Asana Pranayama Mudra Bandha

Recommended reading ~ Mindset

The Spirit of Seeing

Invictus

Walden

Song of Myself

Island

Recommended Listening

Sinatra’s My Way

Posted on

Diet for Semen Retention

A lot of people wonder what the best diet is for semen retention. One that increases testosterone? One that lowers the libido? Vegetarian? Vegan? Paleo? Carnivore?

Read on, my brothers.

Traditional Recommendations

Yoga and Ayurveda are two traditions that speak about using Brahmacharya, or sexual abstinence/semen retention, as a means for spiritual growth. They recommend a vegetarian diet, especially in the beginning of spiritual practice. The bulk of the diet should come from grains, fresh vegetables and fruit, sometimes eggs, and plenty of dairy products.

It’s important to remember the cultural backdrop of ancient India – most were Hindu or Buddhist, and as such they practiced ahimsa, non-violence towards all creatures, and thus many were vegetarians. They also considered cows to be sacred animals, so they certainly weren’t eating much beef, but they definitely found dairy products to be beneficial. Dairy provided some animal protein as well as healthy fats and Omega 3s, considering the cows were allowed to roam freely and ate their natural diet of grasses, not soy and corn feed. Dairy was considered sattvic, meaning it produced peace and tranquility.

It’s important to note that the dairy they consumed came from healthy, stress-free cows, allowed to roam and eat as they pleased, and the milk products were non-homogenized and un-pasteurized, meaning the fats and proteins within weren’t denatured. Long story short, this was much higher quality dairy than you’d find in the plastic-leaching gallon jugs in the super market, coming from stressed out, sick cows fed an unnatural diet that is high in pro-inflammatory Omega 6 fatty acids, filled with denatured proteins and fats.

A lighter diet, one that is lower in meat intake is actually very beneficial in the starting stages of semen retention, and is exactly what I would recommend when starting out. In the beginning it helps to decrease sexual urges, and lower meat intake will do exactly this. I remember once, despite not being Catholic, I gave up meat for Lent – my girlfriend wasn’t too pleased with the resulting drop in libido.

Less meat means less zinc, and a ton of zinc goes into sperm production. You also aren’t getting all of the stress hormones found in the meat – factory farmed meat comes from animals that are treated horribly, and are killed extremely inhumanely, many hung upside down with their throats slit and left to bleed out. Where do you think all the adrenaline released when the animal gets slaughtered winds up? In the muscle meat. This is also one reason why hunters try to kill an animal swiftly, with one shot, so that there’s no time for adrenaline to be released, tainting the taste.

You also will be avoiding all of the excess inflammatory Omega 6s in the factory-farmed animal fat, as the feed they eat is comprised mostly of corn and soy. Further, one of the ways the body deals with environmental toxin overload is to store it away into fat. That delicious, marbled rib-eye is loaded with chemicals your body then has to deal with – no bueno.

A further consideration to eating less meat in the beginning is that meat is high in the amino acid L-tyrosine, a precursor to dopamine and adrenaline. One of the main side effects of dopaminergic drugs such as amphetamine, cocaine and even dopaminergic anti-parkinsons drugs include a huge increase in libido, as well as risky behavior. We’re trying to make the body relaxed and calm, not revved up and prone to giving in to its every impulse.

Conversely, foods lower in protein and higher in carbs are considered more sattvic than their rajasic meat and spice alternatives. I suspect a large reason for this is the effect carbs have on increasing serotonin, a calming, contentedness inducing neurotransmitter within the brain.

Ayurveda also recommends a blander diet, one without much black pepper, garlic, onions and other members of the allium family. I haven’t found a ton of information backing these claims up, other than garlic containing allicin, which may increase blood flow to the genitals, and spicy foods “irritating the urogenital tract”. If anyone would like to cut these foods out from their diet and report back, leave a comment below.

So while starting off with semen retention, you should try to make the diet clean, light and calming. Don’t overeat, cut back on meat in general, go organic with all food if possible, and cut back on rajasic or stimulating foods.

The Modern Take

That’s all well and good for the beginner, but what about when we’ve gained some semblance of control over our monstrous libido? This is when we want to start optimizing male hormone levels.

Go organic – Ever heard of xenoestrogens? These are chemicals in our environment and food that act like estrogen within the body, and they are fuckin’ everywhere. Pesticides, herbicides and fungicides in food, ingredients in medications, birth control in the water supply, natural and synthetic perfumes, chemicals found in tons of plants like soy, lavender, even our precious hops in beer – these all have estrogen-mimicking properties within the body.

That’s why I have a big issue with people who say the phytoestrogens in soy products pose no harm to modern man. Maybe if that were the only xenoestrogen in our lives, this would be true, but the estrogens within soy products are on top of all of the other xenoestrogens in our environment! There’s a reason testosterone levels and sperm counts have been dropping steadily for decades, and I suspect this is the main reason.

Xenoestrogens are an example of endocrine disruptors, chemicals that fuck with our body’s production of, and receptivity to, hormones – the very things we are trying to optimize. Remember, we’re cultivating our sexual energy, our Jing, and hormones fall under the category of Jing. Common endocrine disruptors include chlorine, fluoride, bromide in baked goods, PCBs, BPA and other plastic chemicals, phthalates, flame-retardants, even electromagnetic fields and blue-light can disrupt our hormone levels! That new car smell we all love so much – you’re basically bathing in toxic endocrine disruptors.

So, if you can afford to, eat organic. Know about the dirty dozen and clean fifteen, and start buying more natural cosmetics, soaps, deodorants and toothpastes. Hitting the sauna is the best way to detox these chemicals out of your body, along with fasting, both intermittent and multi-day fasts.

Reintroduce clean meats – If you’re naturally inclined towards eating meat, start reintroducing it. I can’t recommend enough buying wild-caught fish, pasture-raised farm products or even hunting animals yourself. Animals that live healthy, long, natural lives, eating their natural diets are always higher in nutrition and lower in artificial chemicals and endocrine disruptors. Ever seen the difference in the color of a caged vs pasture-raised egg yolk? The caged one is a pale, runny yellow, while the yolk from the pasture-raised chicken is deep orange with a membrane that is tough to break.

Pasture-raised meats and wild-caught seafood are a good source of amino acids, zinc, taurine, creatine, carnitine, cholesterol and healthy fats, all of which are important for male health. Saturated fat and cholesterol are not the demons you were raised to believe they are, and in fact are crucial elements for the body to create androgens. No cholesterol, no testosterone.

Eat Jing building foods – Foods that enhance Jing and Ojas are always super nutrient dense, foods like egg yolks, liver, heart, oysters, clams, sardines, anchovies, and fish eggs (caviar/roe). These foods are jam packed with vitamins, minerals and other nutrients, which are crucial Jing-building substances. Fattier cuts of free-range/pastured/wild-caught animal products fit in here as well.

We retain sperm to increase Jing, this sexual energy, right? Well, females have Jing too, and much of it is found in their eggs. So anytime you consume eggs, which have all the nutrients needed to create a baby bird, you’re consuming Jing-building nutrients. Even better is roe, as it contains a plethora of Omega 3s, especially DHA in phospholipid form.

Consume plenty of greens – Greens are not only very nutrient dense, they are crucial to the body’s detoxification pathways. If you just can’t manage to get in the habit of eating greens, add spinach or wheatgrass powder to your fruit smoothies, or take a concentrated greens supplement such as VitaMineral Green or Green Vibrance. Better yet, micro-algae such as spirulina and chlorella are both cleansing and help build Jing.

Keep it anti-inflammatory – Most scientists agree that we should be consuming Omega 6 and Omega 3 fats in a 4:1, or less, ratio. The Standard American Diet unfortunately has most of us at a 10:1 or even 50:1 ratio. Though they are both necessary, the problem here is that Omega 6 fatty acids are pro-inflammatory, while Omega 3s are anti-inflammatory. The source of all the extra omega 6 fatty acids? Extracted vegetable oils, which are already rancid. The best source of Omega 3 fats? Cold water fatty fish, such as tuna, salmon, sardines, mackerel, caviar, roe, etc. We should consume other anti-inflammatory foods as well – spices (especially turmeric), herbs, polyphenolic-rich berries, green tea, dark leafy greens, dark cacao, etc.

Extracted fats – If you are using extracted fats to cook with or to use as dressings, you have to be very selective. You want to make sure they are either saturated fats like butter, ghee or coconut oil, or monounsaturated fats like olive oil, macadamia nut oil, avocado oil, etc. What we don’t want are extracted polyunsaturated fats. Because there are many links in the fatty acid where a carbon molecule isn’t saturated with hydrogen, there are multiple points in the chain where light, oxygen and heat can oxidize the fatty acid, turning it rancid. This means extracted vegetable oil that you buy in the store is already rancid. Don’t even get me started on deep fried foods.

Structural differences between saturated, monounsaturated and... | Download Scientific Diagram

Bottom Line

In the beginning, it’s good to lighten up on the diet, cutting back on meat or eliminating it completely, making sure to not overeat, and cutting back on stimulating herbs and spices.

After you’ve reigned in your passions and urges, reintroduce clean meats. At all times, strive to consume organic, nutrient dense foods, with lots of greens, phyto-nutrient rich foods, and staying away from endocrine disruptors as much as possible.

Posted on

Semen Retention – The Art of Cultivating Jing

Alright friends, time to let you in on a little secret. Semen retention is nothing new. This isn’t a fad that grew out of NoFap. This is a hardcore practice that has been studied and honed, passed on from teacher to disciple across the ages.

Like all powerful and transformative practices, it has usually been kept somewhat secret. Celibacy is no secret. The concept of Brahmacharya within Hindu and yogic thought is well known. Solo and “dual-cultivation” within Taoism and “tantric sex” are also well-known, if misunderstood.

All of these things have but one goal – the cultivation of sexual energy, and its sublimation for self-evolution. This was what my first post on r/semenretention was all about.

However, the art of cultivating and transmuting this sexual energy – that knowledge has almost always been handed down from guru to disciple.

What exactly is this sexual energy? The closest you’ll find to a definition within Western science might be the libido, but you sure won’t hear about Freudian psychologists telling you to abstain from masturbation in order to transmute the energy that builds up towards accomplishing your goals.

In yoga and Ayurveda, however, we hear about how Brahmacharya, or purity in thought and action via celibacy, increases an energy called Ojas. Within Taoism and Qi Gong, that energy is referred to as Jing. You can find equivalents in almost all spiritual traditions.

The goal, then, is not semen retention for the sake of semen retention, but the cultivation of sexual energy, of Jing, of Ojas.

Western science has found very little benefits to abstaining from ejaculation other than a quick and light increase in testosterone, and preventing the release of prolactin during orgasm from dampening our dopaminergic tone. If you tell almost anyone what you’re doing, that you’re abstaining from jacking off to increase your energy, build charisma, accomplish your goals, you’ll swiftly be laughed at.

If you say the same to a yogi, a Qi Gong practitioner, probably even a martial artist, they’ll say “Welcome to the club”.

Most importantly, the traditions of yoga, Qi Gong and more have perfected the art of cultivation and sublimation of this energy beyond just semen retention! This is huge. This means that there are multiple modalities to further enhance this sexual energy in addition to just retention. That’s why I’ve created this site, to share this knowledge.

So what actually is this sexual energy, this Jing?

First off, Jing is less of an actual “thing” we can extract from the body, and more of a collection of factors – it is known not by its parts, but by its conceptual whole. Can you go up to someone and pull out their “toughness”? Can you point to something within the body that is a persons “drive”? No! Both are complex, ever-evolving and interwoven systems of smaller components, some physical, some mental.

So…. what are the components making up Jing? It can best be summed up as one’s “robustness/vitality”, but it really can’t be pinned down so simply.

Physically speaking, Jing encompasses ones immunity to disease, hormone and neurotransmitter levels, the integrity of one’s DNA, one’s virility, one’s youthful appearance and one’s longevity. An 18 or 19 year old teenager who can do two-a-day workouts for football, masturbate multiple times a day, stay up late partying and wake up early the next day, ready to go without so much as a coffee or Red Bull – that is someone with a lot of Jing.

Jing goes beyond the physical, however. Jing encompasses ones drive, motivation, physical and mental endurance and fortitude.. Someone with a lot of Jing is able to accomplish a lot, and also take a beating and keep on ticking.

This is part of why we start feeling so great when we start on this path of retention. We build strength from within. It’s like we’re finally getting a nutrient we’ve been starved of for a long time.

Jing is also the basis for our Qi and Shen, our energy and spirit – and these collectively make up what the Taoists refer to as the Three Treasures. The other two treasures come into play when we talk about other aspects of semen retention – for example, the reasons your aura starts to increase in strength and attractiveness is because the increased Jing starts to spill over, increasing your Qi and Shen.

Again, you don’t have to use these terms. You can just say that your sexual energy creates magnetism and makes your aura big and strong. Same stuff, different words.

Daily life drains Jing, and when it has fully burnt out, you die. Anything to excess damages Jing, especially masturbation for men. Any wise person who knows about the concept of Jing does all they can to preserve it and to increase it.

And that’s where the good news comes in, my friends. You may have needlessly spilt a lot of seed over your years, and that’s a waste, to be sure. But you’ve since given up the cycle of urge -> frivolous and spasmodic masturbation -> self-pity and shame. You’ve plugged what’s likely your biggest leak of Jing.

And you’ve found this site, which is dedicated to increasing Jing – something that isn’t talked about much elsewhere online. You’ll learn about so many other methods to rapidly and potently increase your Jing, your sexual energy, your motivation and drive.

This is for everyone that stopped masturbating, did some cold showers, felt the benefits, and they wanted more. Don’t be scared off by a little yoga or some foreign terms and concepts – these practices are non-denominational and freaking powerful.

And remember, X-rays weren’t formally discovered until 1895, the double-helix shape of DNA wasn’t discovered until 1952 – but all these things and more have existed for millions of years. Modern science is a beautiful, beautiful thing, but just because you can’t easily extract a “Jing” and test it in peer-reviewed, double-blind studies doesn’t mean it isn’t something we can’t cultivate right now. We can’t prove that the mind exists, but we all agree that it does, and we use meditation, therapy and many other modalities to strengthen and control it. Instead of wasting our seed, let’s start retaining it, cultivating this energy, and putting it to good use.

Posted on

Start Here – Semen Retention 101

New to the art of Semen Retention? First step is.. Drum roll please…….

Stop watching porn and masturbating! If you’re currently booed up, you should talk to your lady and explain that by not coming, you can focus more exclusively on her wants and needs. It will be very difficult for the novice to have penetrative sex without orgasm at first, but keep at it.

After that, you’ll want to stabilize your mind so as to prevent overwhelming urges and “relapses”. Many guys aren’t prepared for how powerful these urges can become – our boy Josh Hartnett knows.

Then, you’ll want to start sublimating this sexual energy so it isn’t locked in your cock and you’re able to use it for kicking ass in life. This is JUST as important as not succumbing to coming – no sense building up this sexual energy if it just stays in your balls.

Finally, you’ll want to start further building and enhancing this energy to use it for higher purposes, but that will be a topic for later posts.

Calming the Mind to Prevent Relapse

  1. Get off of tempting platforms – If you’re going to keep social media platforms, make sure you aren’t following users who post a lot of tantalizing photos.
  2. Exhaust yourself each day – I can think of no better way to get your mind off of getting off than to just be exhausted. Long ass runs, heavy sessions in the gym, tons of work/school work; no matter how you slice it, if you’re too beat to beat it, it’s a win.
  3. Modify your diet – Make it light and a little bland. Cut back on meats, especially red meat and shellfish. They’re high in zinc and carni-nutrients, loads of which go into your loads. Cut back on the allium family (garlic, onions, leaks, etc) and spicy foods, as these are traditionally said to increase libido and “irritate the uro-genital tract”. This only needs to be done in the beginning, when you’re beginning to find your strength. Despite not being Catholic, I gave up meat once for Lent. This meant I unknowingly also gave up my sex drive.
  4. Practice fasting – This goes hand in hand with point three. Look into intermittent fasting, where you only eat your food in a 16 hour window. Try out the occasional 24 hour juice or bone broth fast. Fasting can really help to reel in the libido in the beginning.
  5. Take calming herbs and supplements, and avoid stimulating ones – Herbs such as reishi mushroom, polygala and lion’s mane really help to calm the mind and curb desires. Avoid libido boosters and stimulants, such as ginseng, maca, coffee and adderall. Alcohol should be strictly off limits for the first couple months.
  6. Start meditating – While desires do have a physical (hormonal) component, you interact with them via the mind. The stronger and more pure your mind is, the less lust rears its ugly head. Start with 10 minutes of calm-abiding or metta meditation each day.
  7. Cultivate the Yin within – To put things in to Taoist parlance, masculine energy is yang, female energy yin. We’ve all seen the Yin Yang symbol. By practicing semen retention, we start cultivating yang energy – we increase our drive, and women take note of this masculine energy. Because we become much more yang, we need to balance it out by cultivating yin within ourselves. We can do this with yin herbs, things like goji berries, dendrobium or peony. We can also spend time in nature, preferably the forest or ocean, or working with our emotions, either through music, metta and compassion meditations, and by practicing generosity.

Great, so now you’ve calmed your mind a bit. What about starting to transmute that energy? Sublimation is just the act of turning one substance into a higher, more valuable substance. So we sublimate this sexual energy into drive, motivation, accomplishment – in short, we channel this sexual energy towards achieving our goals.

Transmutation Basics

  1. Do kegels – Do em while driving. Do em while at work. Do em while making intense eye contact with your boss so he knows who’s really in charge. This will help prevent wet dreams, it helps prevent that sexual energy from leaking out, and kegels build a base should you ever want to have sex without emission.
  2. Start a mental discipline – I personally think meditation should be a part of every mans semen retention protocol. Journaling, reading, thought exercises, and even playing chess are good additions as well – basically anything that is “heady”. The point is to keep the mind engaged and not thinking about the female form, and then building up mental power and discipline.
  3. Read elevating texts – David Goggin’s Can’t Hurt Me, Jocko Willink’s Discipline Equals Freedom, Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich, Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations, Seneca’s Letters From a Stoic are all great choices. If you wanna throw a little spirit in there, check out Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching, The Bhagavad Gita, The Bible, Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha, or Ram Dass’ Be Here Now.
  4. Work out – You’re going to start having a surplus of energy from retaining – put it to good use by building up your physical body. Working out is as much a mental discipline as a physical one, so you’re really killing two birds with one stone here. Doesn’t matter what you do, but it must be sufficiently challenging, which means as you get better at x, y, or z, you’re going to have to keep upping the intensity or switching to other types of working out.
  5. Cold showers – A lot of guys are fans of the cold showers/baths in the semen retention community, and I’m one of them. Most people don’t realize the immense benefits of cold immersion, how it increases epinephrine by up to 300% (fat loss, energy, drive and motivation), decreases inflammation in the body and brain, releases cold shock proteins which actually help to repair the brain/blood brain barrier, boosts immunity and more. Cold immersion also helps to lock in jing, as the body shunts blood and jing towards the organs and brain and away from the extremities.
  6. Journal – Keep track of how you feel and the progress you make. As the old adage goes, “What doesn’t get measured, doesn’t get managed.”
  7. Yoga – What do you think of when you think of yoga? Soccer moms and new-age women practicing their sun salutations, or maybe some honey bunnies in skin-tight yoga pants? I can’t blame you at all, for that’s how far yoga has been bastardized in the West. As for me, I think of ash-covered sadhakas who have been up all night in the cemetery, meditating on death. I think of sages and seers who’ve reached the pinnacle of human evolution. I think of people who have mastered the art of semen retention and with it, perfected self-evolution…

The physical side of yoga, all the asanas, or postures, help to massage and tone the endocrine glands, those glands in your body that secrete hormones like testosterone and that produce sperm and semen. Breathing practices helps to further calm the nervous system and are probably the single best way to transmute sexual energy for higher purposes, and meditation brings it all home – when you have a powerful mind under your control, there’s just no stopping you.

Now certainly, you don’t need to become an ash-covered yogi. I’m just trying to point out that abstaining from masturbation, cold showers and lifting weights will only take you so far. If you want to stop there, by all means, please do.

If you’re interested in taking Semen Retention and, by extension your whole life, to the next level, to beyond anything you thought was possible.. You’ve come to the right place.

Just make sure you’re ready, because beyond a certain point, there’s no turning back.